Manning Park – Columbian Ground Squirrels

The area around Manning Park resort Lodge has a healthy colony of Columbian Ground Squirrels. These little critters are quite acclimatized to people and I saw a few come right up and take food from a tourist (BAD tourist!). These guys live in little complexes of burrows in the higher alpine areas. They are quite the sight to watch as they scurry from one hole to the other, prairie dogging periodically.

From wikipedia: The Columbian Ground Squirrel is found in the North-western United States and South Western Canada (Eliot 1991). Specifically, they are found in parts of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington in the United States. In Canada, they are found largely in British Columbia and on the western edges of Alberta.

The images below were all shot with the Canon 50D and 100-400L (mostly at 400mm)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. Aren’t they just the cutest thing? Basically LARGE rats with good PR 😉